St. Hippolytus (Blexen)

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North side of the church

St. Hippolyt is the Evangelical Lutheran church from Nordenham - Blexen in the Wesermarsch district . The Romanesque hall church from the 12th century has a recessed rectangular choir and a west tower with an eight-sided pointed spire. The valuable pieces of equipment include the altar by Ludwig Münstermann (1610) and the pulpit (1638), both richly carved in the Mannerist style.

history

North wall of the choir made of sandstone, tuff stone and brick, choir gable renewed after storm surge damage (1715) in 1736, window in 1880

In 789 the Saxon and Frisian missionary and first Bremen bishop Willehad visited Blexen and died here on November 8th, 789. His body was transferred by ship to the wooden Bremen Cathedral , which was built the year before , but which went up in flames two years later during the Saxon Wars .

Ansgar , the next bishop of Bremen, was installed in 805 and built the next Bremen cathedral. The first church in Blexen is mentioned in 840. The oldest archaeological traces of a church are dated around the year 1000. After a fire in 1050, the first stone church was built.

Priest gate in the wall of the choir

Today's church stands on or above its foundations. She is the St. Consecrated to Hippolytus , a rather rare patronage in Germany . In the Middle Ages a "club of Hippolytus" was venerated here as a relic. The church was thus the most important shrine in the Frisian state community of Rüstringen . In the churchyard there is the "Willehadiquelle", a fresh water fountain, a treasure a few hundred meters from the sea. In the Middle Ages, it was considered miraculous. With its source and relic, the church was the destination of pilgrimages in the Middle Ages .

During the Catholic period, Blexen, like the rest of the northeast of the Weserems area, belonged to the Archdiocese of Bremen . The church was the location of one of the four sending courts in Rüstringen. During the rule of the chiefs (around 1360 to 1418), the Blex Church was converted into a fortified church and fortified with a rampart and moat to protect it from the Bremen-Oldenburg military campaigns. The church was besieged by the people of Bremen in 1419 (damage to the tower) and conquered.

With the introduction of the Reformation in the county of Oldenburg in 1530, the parish changed to the Protestant confession. Edo Sibrandi is the first Protestant pastor here. In 1566, Count Anton I of Oldenburg had the upper floor of the tower added.

Since then the tower has served as a navigation mark.

Not quite as perfect as the north wall of the choir is that of the nave

building

The almost east-facing church is an essentially Romanesque hall building . The four-bay nave is followed by the slightly drawn-in two-bay choir with Gothic ribbed vaults and a straight east end.

The construction of this church began around 1150 with the choir, the side walls of which are sophisticated: up to more than half the height they are made of porta sandstone , as are the corners of the upper area. This is smooth and consists of alternating layers of tuff and bricks of the same height . Subsequently, and apparently conceived from the beginning, the nave was built , in the lower area to the east from brick with sandstone bands, to the west entirely from porta sandstone. The upper wall area is completely made of tuff stone.

The long sides of the choir close below the eaves with a round arch frieze, those of the nave with a cross arch frieze made of chain arches . The choir is illuminated on the long sides through two small arched windows and in the east through three arched windows, the nave from the north through four small arched windows in the upper zone and from the south through five larger arched windows. In the west of the long sides there is a round window in the lower zone. Round-arched north and south portals open up the choir and nave. Inside, a large arch opens the choir to the ship.

West tower from the northwest
Tower and ship from the south

The tower was built from 1260, in Gothic style. The choir may have received its Gothic vaults at the same time. Three floors of porta sandstone were placed over the granite base. The tower was badly damaged during the siege and conquest of the church by a Bremen army in 1417. Since the reconstruction, the exterior has mainly been made of brick and, like the old sandstone version, is decorated with ogival arcades. In the same context or in the century before, the choir gable collapsed. Today the east gable of the choir consists mainly of gray brick, that of the nave partly. The top floor was only added under the County of Oldenburg around 1554 or 1566. Its pointed arched windows with white fighters and keystones mark the transition from late Gothic to mannerism .

In the choir there was a display grave equipped with a hagioscope for the relic, in corruption of the name Hippolytus also called "Polesgrab" .

A storm destroyed the spire and parts of the tower, which were erected in 1569. The gatehouse was built in 1711, as the county of Oldenburg was at that time linked to Denmark in personal union, also known as the Danish Gate. In 1741 the spire burned down and was renewed in 1754.

In the 19th century the south side of the church was completely changed and new windows were also added on the north side. The components that were changed at the time and the east gable of the choir and nave are now largely made of gray brick.

The Willehadi fountain was provided with a neo-Gothic tower in 1875.

20th century and present

The parish carried out a church renovation in 1955 and an interior renovation in 1965. The pulpit and altar were restored and the figures were given a white paint. The pulpit was moved from the choir arch to the southeast corner and the sound cover was hung on a steel beam. The altar returned to the church in 1982 and was last restored in 2008.

Furnishing

Altar from 1610
Pulpit from 1638

The interior of the ship is closed off by a flat wooden beam ceiling, which is painted with colorful tendrils. The wooden west gallery serves as the installation site for the organ and rests on square, ornate wooden posts. It is continued as an angular gallery on the north side on slim round columns. The gallery parapet is structured by pilasters . The fields have round arches with paintings of the apostles. The wooden church stalls leave a central aisle free.

A late Gothic sacrament niche has been preserved in the north wall. Its tympanum shows the martyrdom of St. Hippolytus. The cup-shaped, stone baptismal font from 1642 is supported by a figure of St. Willehad worn. The west yoke has late Gothic paintings.

Most of the interior is from the early Baroque period. The rich mannerist carving of the three-storey altarpiece with its two flanking and five crowning figures was made by Ludwig Münstermann in 1610. In 1850/1851 the altar was redesigned in the classicism style and given a new color. According to plans by Ludwig Starklof, Ludwig Strack painted pictures as copies of works from the Italian Renaissance . Münstermann's son Johann created the polygonal, wooden pulpit in 1638 with artistic carvings. Corner pillars structure the blind niches of the pulpit, in front of which the four figures of the evangelists with their symbols and John the Baptist are placed. Since the original version cannot be reconstructed, the pulpit will be restored in 2015 to its condition from 1852, when the figures were given a white alabaster color in the style of classicism. The sound cover has rich carving and is crowned by an over-high structure.

organ

Interior to the west with a view of the organ

An organ in St. Hippolyt can be traced back to the 16th century. In 1638 Gerd Kröger (Oldenburg) built a small organ. Joachim Kayser (Jever) built a two-manual organ with an attached pedal in 1685 . After minor changes to the disposition , Johann Claussen Schmid built a new plant behind the old prospectus in 1868 using older material. The organ builder Alfred Führer carried out a renovation in 1937 and in 1969 created a new building behind the organ prospectus from 1685. The company exchanged registers in 1973 and 1991. The instrument was designed based on the disposition of the old organ by Kayser and has 22 registers , which are distributed over two manuals and pedal. The five-axis prospect of the Rückpositiv in the gallery parapet has an elevated, polygonal central tower, which is flanked by two-storey flat fields, and two pointed towers on the outside. The prospectus of the main plant has nine axes. The middle part is structured like the Rückpositiv. On the outside, however, there is a high flat field and large polygonal towers. The actions are mechanical.

I Hauptwerk C – g 3
1. Quintad 16 ′
2. Principal 8th'
3. Reed flute 8th'
4th octave 4 ′
5. Nasat 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
6th octave 2 ′
7th Sesquialtera II
8th. Mixture IV-V 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
9. Trumpet 8th'
Tremulant
II Rückpositiv C – g 3
10. Dumped 8th'
11. Principal 4 ′
12. Reed flute 4 ′
13. Pointed flute 2 ′
14th Fifth 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
15th Scharff III 1'
16. Krummhorn 8th'
Pedals C – f 1
17th Sub bass 16 ′
18th Principal 8th'
19th octave 4 ′
20th Rauschpfeife IV 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
21st trombone 16 ′
22nd Trumpet 8th'

Bells

An old triple bell was stolen by Anton I in 1557 . A Marienglocke by Ghert Klinghe from 1449 was cast in 1827 by JP Barrels. The same bell was cast in 1888 by the Otto bell foundry from Hemelingen / Bremen. At that time Otto delivered two bronze bells with the striking notes e 'and es' for St. Hippolytus. They had the following diameters: 1500 mm and 1250 mm and weighed 1870 kg and 1086 kg and 1086 kg. The smaller es'-bell still exists today and bears the inscription: “Jesus Christ yesterday and today and the same also in eternity. Come too many! Psalter and harp wake up! Let the hymn of praise be heard. ”Otto's larger e'-bell, which was also cast in 1888, was melted down in World War I, its successor in World War II. As a replacement, Rincker cast a bell on c 1 in 1972 (1.50 m diameter and 1800 kg). It bears the inscription: "JESUS ​​CHRIST YESTERDAY AND TODAY AND THE SAME ALSO IN ETERNITY: GIVE US MERCY PEACE, LORD GOD IN OUR TIMES." The bell now houses this two-tone bell.

See also

literature

  • Hans-Bernd Rödiger, Waldemar Reinhardt: Frisian Churches - Rüstringen, Friesische Wehde, Butjadingen, Stedingen and City of Wilhelmshaven , Volume 4. Verlag CL Mettcker & Söhne, Jever 1982, p. 64 ff.
  • Wolfgang Runge: Churches in the Oldenburger Land . Volume I: Church districts Butjadingen , Brake , Elsfleth . Heinz Holzberg Verlag, Oldenburg 1983, ISBN 3-87358-167-1 , p. 25 ff.
  • Ernst Andreas Friedrich : The Hippolytkirche in Blexen. In: If stones could talk. Volume II, Landbuch-Verlag, Hannover 1992, ISBN 3-7842-0479-1 , p. 40 ff.
  • Wilhelm Gilly: Medieval churches and chapels in the Oldenburger Land. Building history and inventory. Isensee Verlag , Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-126-6 , p. 38 ff.
  • Hermann Haiduck: The architecture of the medieval churches in the East Frisian coastal area . 2nd Edition. Ostfriesische Landschaftliche Verlags- und Vertriebs-GmbH, Aurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-940601-05-6 , p. 11, 36, 77, 97 .
  • Gerhard Reinhold: Otto Glocken - Family and company history of the bell foundry dynasty Otto. Essen 2019, ISBN 978-3-00-063109-2 .
  • Gerhard Reinhold: Church bells - Christian world cultural heritage, illustrated using the example of the bell founder Otto, Hemelingen / Bremen . Nijmegen / NL 2019, urn : nbn: nl: ui: 22-2066 / 204770 (dissertation at Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c The St. Hippolyt Church in Nordenham receives a funding contract from the DSD , accessed on September 22, 2015.
  2. ↑ Jörgen Welp: Churches in the Oldenburg Wesermarsch. Retrieved February 9, 2015.
  3. ↑ Erwin Gatz (Ed.): Atlas on the Church in Past and Present: Holy Roman Empire - German-speaking Lander , 2009, ISBN 978-3-7954-2181-6
  4. ^ Menno Smid: Ostfriesische Kirchengeschichte (=  East Friesland in the protection of the dike . Volume 6 ). Self-published, Pewsum 1974, p. 44, 46 .
  5. ↑ a b A minster in a dress from 1852 , accessed on September 22, 2015.
  6. ↑ Fritz sign: Organ Atlas of historical and modern organs of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oldenburg . Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven 2008, ISBN 978-3-7959-0894-2 , pp. 62-63 .
  7. ↑ More information about the organ , accessed on September 22, 2015.
  8. ^ Gerhard Reinhold: Otto bells. Family and company history of the Otto bell foundry dynasty . Self-published, Essen 2019, ISBN 978-3-00-063109-2 , p. 588, here in particular pp. 180, 413, 504 .
  9. ↑ Gerhard Reinhold: Church bells - Christian world cultural heritage, illustrated using the example of the bell founder Otto, Hemelingen / Bremen . Nijmegen / NL 2019, p. 556, here in particular pp. 176, 389, 390, 471 , urn : nbn: nl: ui: 22-2066 / 204770 (dissertation at Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen).

Web links

Commons : St. Hippolytus  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Commons : St.-Willehad-Brunnen (Blexen)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 53 ° 31 '53.6 "  N , 8 ° 32' 10.5"  E